Determination of nine cardiovascular drugs in human plasma by QuEChERS-UPLC-MS/MS

To determine the concentrations of nine drugs used in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases in human plasma through QuEChERS pre-treatment combined with ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Plasma samples were extracted with 3 mL of acetonitrile, 400 mg of anhydrous magnesium sulfate as a salting agent, and 20 mg of C18 as a sorbent. An Agilent Poroshell 120 EC-C18 column (4.6 × 100 mm, 2.7 μm) was selected and methanol-0.1 % water was used as the mobile phase, and ESI positive ion detection mode was selected. Results: The plasma concentrations of nisoldipine, metoprolol, and prazosin exhibited good linearity within the range of 0.05-4.0 ng/mL (r > 0.99), while atenolol, bisoprolol, propranolol, rosuvastatin, and atorvastatin showed linearity within the range of 0.5-40 ng/mL (r > 0.99). Fluvastatin showed good linearity within the range of 5.0-400 ng/mL. The accuracy of the method ranged from 94.15 to 110.62 %, while the recovery levels were in the range of 85.23 %-115.13 %. The matrix effects were observed between-6.54 % and 12.43 %. The intra-day and inter-day RSD was <15 % for the three concentrations of low, medium, and high. Conclusion The proposed method is rapid, accurate, specific, simple, reproducible, and suitable for the simultaneous measurement of the concentrations of nine drugs used in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases in human plasma.